Brake job on the Audi TT 8N and getting a little carried away

As the TT's maintenance has been either neglected or undocumented in recent years (prior me of course), it was about time to address the brakes. Looking at the brakes, it was obvious that the best way was to go all in, rebuilding front and rear calipers, replacing discs and pads, e-brake cables, all hoses, and naturally, brake fluid. This also allowed me to restore the hubs and splash guards, removing rust and fixing other issues that I came across.

Autodoc sells rebuild kits for the 8N platform brakes. These include pins, washers, rubber parts plus other small bits and pieces that need to be taken out.

The front calipers are easy to disassemble. The piston comes out easy with compressed air and the rubber seals can be removed with a pick. The rear calipers have a mechanism for the parking brake, which is more difficult to remove. I needed to get a pair of really long needle nosed pliers to be able to get to the locking ring inside the rear caliper cylinder.

The calipers and brackets had flaking paint and were quite rusty so I built a small sanding cabinet for easy removal of these. The box consists of a plastic storage box and regular piping bends. There's also a vent in the back.

Having removed corrosion on the calipers I painted them with high temp paint. The vodka is used for grease removal on the calipers only.

The high temp paint hardens when heated in the kitchen oven for an hour.

Aside from the parking brake mechanisms, I had most trouble with removing the brake hoses as the connectors were really corroded.

I like to do major brake jobs like this just before the yearly inspection as braking forces are measured in the inspection. It is a more accurate measure than just the feel of improved braking power and gives good feedback on e.g. brake balance.